Tips for Selling a Used Saddle

At AH Saddles we run a group on Facebook for selling specialist cob, native and other wide/flat types of saddles and we see some fairly shocking ads!  If you get it wrong then it might even mean you can't sell your saddle, or will get less money for it.  Get it right (including pricing it realistically!) and you'll likely sell it more quickly and often for a better price.

I'm going to focus on what photos to take and include, pricing is a fine art but a broad piece of advice is to go to half the price you paid or, if you're really lucky, the current price, and go down from there if your saddle is older than 2 years or so, or if it has significant wear or tear.  If it's a specialist or smaller brand like ours, that's fairly rare and always sought after, you'll clearly get a decent price, unless someone is selling an identical model at the same time, always worth checking before deciding to sell yours RIGHT NOW.

Selling nearly new saddles at over 75% of the new price is seldom going to attract a buyer, most will add the extra to their budget and buy with a warranty and, so often, a full fitting service with the assurance that brings.

So, which photos should you post?

Firstly a good square-on shot from the side showing the overall seat and flap shape. 

Next the width will likely be the most important, if you take the photo at an odd angle not even a professional saddle fitter is going to know what width it is. Dee to dee measurements are, I'm afraid, a complete waste of time. Dees (or more correctly fall down staples) are added by hand and can vary in where they're placed, even in identical models made by the very same craftsman.  The distance between the panels may be a factor, but how high they are set under the pommel will affect that measurement and slightly affect how it fits.

Then more detail is a good idea, again, try and take these photos square on rather than odd angles, buyers want to see very clearly what they're buying.  Take photos of girth straps to show wear and tear as well as any areas of damage, always best to be honest.

There are two measurements that ARE valid.  One is the seat measurement which must always be taken from the centre of the nail head, through the air in a straight line, to the centre of the cantle.  A heavily padded rounded cantle edge can be hard to decide where the exact top edge is, so you may want to show a close up.The channel width is important as it must be wide enough to accommodate the spine, though most saddle fitting models will also say that it shouldn't' be much wider than the spine or the fit will lack stability and may even have too little panel left either side of it to spread the rider's weight.

If the saddle has a clearly marked ID number (and often seat size) on the flap it's a great idea to include that, then the buyer can go to the maker to get full model details.

I hope that helps all of you, of course it goes without saying to use a fairly plain background and the best light possible, here's that first shot taken inside with a flash, you can see the difference.

And for those interested this is a 17" AH Saddles Supercob GP, a flat, hoop tree for either super flat or very wide (or both!) backs, you can find the saddle on our website here https://www.ahsaddles.com/super-cob-gp-saddle, it comes in 16"-18" and from W/XW to XXXXXW!